![Rebecca Barnard and Monique Brumby will sing about books at the State Library as part of Melbourne Music Week.](/web/20161112032538im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/m/7/e/e/image.related.wideLandscape.300x169.gsi61q.png/1478821034382.jpg)
Stage
![Rebecca Barnard and Monique Brumby will sing about books at the State Library as part of Melbourne Music Week.](/web/20161112032538im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/m/7/e/e/image.related.wideLandscape.300x169.gsi61q.png/1478821034382.jpg)
![Matt Hickey and Olivia Monticciolo in Attic Erratic's <i>Blessed</i>.](/web/20161112032538im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/m/9/t/7/image.related.landscape.120x80.gsm6wa.png/1478747833932.jpg)
Blessed review: A messianic vision of marginalised youth
Skirmishes between the sexes touch on the ambiguities of seduction and intimations of sexual violence.
Theatre
![Callum Linnane and Jake Mangakahia will rotate the lead role in The Australian Ballet's production of <i>Nijinsky</i> ...](/web/20161112032538im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/k/d/m/j/image.related.wideLandscape.300x169.gsm64i.png/1478820926784.jpg)
Capturing the elusive essence of a culture icon on stage
High leaps? Expressive hands? A strong profile? What was choreographer John Neumeier looking for when he auditioned dancers to play one of the great icons of twentieth century culture, Vaslav Nijinsky?
![Matt Hickey and Olivia Monticciolo in Attic Erratic's <i>Blessed</i>.](/web/20161112032538im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/m/9/t/7/image.related.landscape.120x80.gsm6wa.png/1478747833932.jpg)
Blessed review: A messianic vision of marginalised youth
Skirmishes between the sexes touch on the ambiguities of seduction and intimations of sexual violence.
Dance
![Ella Havelka in the documentary <I>Ella</I>.](/web/20161112032538im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/l/a/f/0/image.related.wideLandscape.300x169.gsla4u.png/1478763943781.jpg)
Documentary charts Aboriginal dancer's journey to Australian Ballet
Isn't it enough for Ella Havelka to succeed in an enormously taxing and competitive profession, without having to be a symbol as well?
![American artist Nick Cave's HEARD.SYD will be performed by 60 dancers in horse costumes in Pitt Street Mall and ...](/web/20161112032538im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/k/g/y/o/image.related.landscape.120x80.gsken4.png/1478731514851.jpg)
Heads or tails? It's how you move that determines your position inside a horse
American artist Nick Cave has given the panto horse an artistic makeover, but it is still a tough gig to play an equine rear end.
![Balancing act: Dads uses dance to link the performers with their fathers.](/web/20161112032538im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/h/z/y/g/image.related.landscape.120x80.gsi004.png/1478224585258.jpg)
Dads step into the spotlight
A warm-hearted show that links the performers with their fathers through dance, Dads is fun, thoughtful and occasionally revealing.
Musicals
![The cast in Spring Awakening, from left, Pip Carroll as Moritz, Liam Downing as Otto, Breanna Macey as Thea Jake Willis ...](/web/20161112032538im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/f/x/i/7/image.related.wideLandscape.300x169.gsfgbn.png/1478416676610.jpg)
Spring Awakening at ANU Arts Centre is a rock musical about teen angst
Phoenix Players presents the Canberra premiere of the award-winning musical about German adolescents grappling with romance and sexuality in a repressive environment.
![<i>The Merry Widow from Bluegum Creek</i>: front row Charles Hudson, Louise Keast and Kenneth Goodge, back row Louisa ...](/web/20161112032538im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/c/c/t/9/image.related.landscape.120x80.gsat4l.png/1477979107315.jpg)
The Merry Widow from Bluegum Creek is coming to the Q
This new version of Lehar's operetta adds a distinctively Australian touch.
![Chelsea Plumley as the overprotective mother in The Light In The Piazza.](/web/20161112032538im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/d/8/d/q/image.related.landscape.120x80.gsd8c9.png/1477881591047.jpg)
Rich and melodic musical with just a few flaws
The Light in the Piazza represents an ambitious departure from the formula typical of contemporary Broadway musicals
Opera
![Sally-Anne Russell and Elena Xanthoudakis in Melbourne Opera's Anna Bolena.](/web/20161112032538im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/h/x/x/8/image.related.wideLandscape.300x169.gshxzo.png/1478475875391.jpg)
Boisterous production doesn't quite hit the mark
The steely voice of soprano Elena Xanthoudakis sliced through the orchestra like a freshly sharpened axe blade.
![Stuart Skelton and Nina Hemme in the Met Opera production of Tristan und Isolde.](/web/20161112032538im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/f/b/b/7/image.related.landscape.120x80.gsf8hs.png/1477968766030.jpg)
Australian opera star takes Tristan to the world
For Stuart Skelton, 2016 has been the Year of the Tristan. By the time the avuncular Sydney-born heldentenor reaches Hobart to sing in a concert performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, it will be his 25th performance of this lengthy and arduous role.
![Police at New York's Metropolitan Opera, which halted a performance after someone sprinkled an unknown powder into the ...](/web/20161112032538im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/d/z/d/z/image.related.landscape.120x80.gsdz9p.png/1477810278611.jpg)
New York opera cancelled over scattered 'human' ashes
Police say a powdered substance that was sprinkled into the orchestra pit at New York's Metropolitan Opera may have been an opera lover's ashes.
Comedy
![Bill Bailey says he never underestimates an audience.](/web/20161112032538im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/g/0/8/f/image.related.wideLandscape.300x169.gsfz8b.png/1478496666285.jpg)
Bill Bailey lets fly on 'monstrous blight' of censorship
The English stand-up comedian knows how it feels to be torn down by the tabloids, but it hasn't quite stopped him speaking his mind.
![Jerry Seinfeld describes Australia as his "comedy home away from home".](/web/20161112032538im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/g/a/k/h/image.related.landscape.120x80.gsgfza.png/1478221112078.jpg)
Jerry Seinfeld to tour Australia almost 20 years on
The master of observational comedy will perform Down Under for the first time in almost 20 years next August. But don't expect any cracks at Melbourne's expense.
![Lawrence Mooney is now more mindful of his impulsive and compulsive characteristics.](/web/20161112032538im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/c/3/p/5/image.related.landscape.120x80.gs94uj.png/1477561126262.jpg)
The comedian who grew up at 50
Lawrence Mooney reflects on a year of living dangerously in his show Moonman.